A World Cup hero needed 25 minutes to show Swansea what 4m euros buys

Stephen Eustaquio had been a Swansea player for two days when the call came at Pride Park, and 25 minutes was all the Canada midfielder needed to make the argument for the transfer. An assist, two key passes and three duels won earned a 7.2 rating in the 3-0 win over Derby, the best return per minute of anyone in white. The assist was the afternoon in miniature: Ronald's stoppage-time third, teed up by the man who had been on the pitch less than half an hour.

The deal itself is a statement: a fixed 4 million euros to Porto, rising by up to 1.65 million, for a 29-year-old with 103 league appearances across four seasons at the Estadio do Dragao. This is the man who played every Canadian minute at the summer World Cup and scored the stoppage-time winner against South Africa in the round of 32. He wears 46 and signed for two years with an option.

Where he lands

Swansea sit third on 7 points after the Derby demolition, a 23-shot, 3.33 expected goals afternoon that read like a siege: 12 of those shots hit the target while Derby managed none on target at all, and Swansea's passing ran at 83 per cent. Around the new man, Josh Key produced five key passes and five tackles from right-back and the centre-half Stephen Welsh took the top rating at 8.3. Eustaquio joins Goncalo Franco, last season's 3,172-minute ever-present, and the Benfica loanee Tiago Parente in a growing Portuguese-speaking spine. The early evidence says the engine room just gained a World Cup gear.